Well, I got ahold of those packs, $13 a piece for an 8 cell, 950Mah pack. What a country!

I weighed the finished firebat with the Nicd battery installed at the post office, for a flying weight of 26.5 oz. Substituting the Nimh 950, the weight drops by at least 3oz. That's an airframe weight change of 11.5%. It makes quite a difference - with no noticible choke on the current flow the thrust seems to be the same and perfomance is much improved. Climb is stronger, any maneuver requiring elevator is much easier. I did three loops on one pass, whereas just getting thru one loop had been dicey. I timed flights as well - the Nicd 1100 pack gave me 7:40 where the Nimh 950 gave me about 6:40 - which is exactly the ratio of 950 to 1100. Can't ask for better performance from Nimh - and they aren't even broken in yet.

I can now hold the nose up at a decent angle of attack. WHen it gets too slow though, it spirals off to the left. I think it's because the Rx anntenna hangs off the left wingtip, causing enough drag to yaw the plane at slow speeds. I will have to figure out a way to stow that antenna inside or ...? That's probably one of the significant drag sources left that I can eliminate.

I'm gonna keep working at this until I get a balanced canard airplane that can hang at an unreasonable angle of attack.